Senator Champion statement on Gov. Walz Executive Order to shelter in place

St.
Paul, Minn.— Gov. Tim Walz issued a Shelter-in-Place Executive Order today
which asks residents to stay at home except for essential activities in order
to slow the spread of coronavirus. This order will go in effect on Friday,
March 27 at 11:59 p.m. until Friday, April
10.

As
the number of infections across the country continues to rise, many other
states have announced similar measures. As of this morning, 16 states and a
number of cities have announced stay-at-home orders. Minnesota is acting now to limit the spread of COVID-19 so our
healthcare system is prepared to care for those that fall critically ill.

So far, the
stay-at-home orders that have been announced in various states all look pretty
similar, requiring residents to stay indoors except for certain essential
activities, which include buying food and seeking medical treatment. Officials
have emphasized that the orders do not completely bar people from leaving their
homes and have encouraged residents to take walks — provided they stay at least
six feet away from anyone not in their household — and go to grocery
stores.

This Executive Order
also authorizes the Commissioner of Education to implement the distant learning
plans until May 4.

Senator Bobby Joe
Champion statement:

“This is not a time to
panic or be fearful. People can still leave their homes to take care of the
health and safety of anyone in their household, including pets. Restaurants
will remain open for takeout and delivery, and people who provide other
essential services such as delivering food, mail or packages, picking up
garbage, and maintaining electrical systems should continue to go to work. You
will be allowed to go outside, but you should restrict travel to essential
activity. We can get through this together.”

“The
change in person-to-person contacts including the two weeks of significant
mitigation by 80 percent followed by physical distancing of three weeks –
especially for our seniors and most vulnerable – will allow us to buy some time
to make key preparations for the pandemic, change the peak time of the epidemic
to 14 weeks vs nine weeks and puts the time to reach ICU capacity to 11 weeks.
This will allow us to get more medical equipment in place, increase testing, not
overwhelm our health care system too quickly, more time to improve existing
treatments, assess new data and ultimately mitigate the spread of the virus.”

“I
am committed to keeping residents up to date with information and resources on
the best ways to protect you and your loved ones. If you haven’t signed up for
my newsletter, please sign up to receive more information directly from my
office: www.senate.mn/senatorchampion .”

“For more
information about COVID-19, please go to the Department of Health website. A hotline is available at 651-201-3920
or 1-800-657-3903. You can also visit Gov. Walz’s website here.”

“As always, please contact me with
your comments and suggestions on this issue or any other concerns I may be able
to help you with. I can be reached by phone at 651-296-9246 — please
leave a voicemail and I will follow up shortly — or by email at bobbyc@senate.mn.”